Apprentice Tara Noon tends to the daffodils grown in The Arium plant nursery near Shadwell, which has super high-tech growing methods.

Leeds City Council moved its enormous horticultural nursery from Red Hall to its new home at Thorner Lane in Scarcroft, and renamed it The Arium, last October.

Read more: Grand opening of The Arium in LeedsAnd with the relocation came new capabilities – a machine which can pot 100,000 plants every day has been installed, and the site includes a greenhouse which could house three football pitches.

Now the huge task of getting two million plants ready for display across the city during summer is in full swing.

Mr Paxton, 34, of Farsley, said: “It’s a massive team effort not just from The Arium but for all the parks (service). It’s nice to be a cog in that.”

At the heart of the nursery's new approach is an incredible machine capable of potting 100,000 plants per day.

He said that it is rare for a council to invest in one big building dedicated to planting such as this, with most local authorities typically offering such duties out for tender.

Whereas previously some 14 nursery staff would have stood at an assembly line potting, specialist equipment now does the job and the site usually produces around 50,000 to 60,000 plants a day – compared to the 25,000 before the move.

As a result Leeds’s parks, open spaces, window boxes, roundabouts, In Bloom entries, hanging baskets and planters, including those on Briggate, are kept full of life.